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Three Bridges
The King’s lands are the richest and most fertile in all the kingdom. At the ‘Y’ where the river splits into Rerick’s River and the Royal River an Island Palace that geographically, politically, and culturally provides the fulcrum of the kingdom connects three bridges. There are four Quarters to the city; Connacth Quarter, Laigin Quarter, Pwymmian Quarter, and the Royal Quarter. The last is set upon an island in the middle of the rivers ‘Y’. Massive and ancient bridges connect the Royal Quarter to the rest of the city. The Largest city in the Realm, Three Bridges hosts more than 20,000 souls per Quarter, each of which is separated into districts. The Palace District is at the very heart of the Royal Quarter. The Palace was one of the first structures in the Kingdom built of Hewn Stone millennia ago. New construction upon the Palace separates the structure into “new” and “old”. The King of Connachta, Ulaid, Laigin, Pwymm, and Th’n Bolak, Sovereign Overlord of all the Dominion reigns and holds court within the ‘Old’ Palace, while he resides in the ‘New’ Palace. Also, around the barracades lie the private apartments for every noble in the land and honored guests. These forty apartments befit the nobles’ station and have been the sight of the most seditious and subtle schemes throughout the centuries. The apartments while beautifully appointed are often described as a “den of spies”. The Pwymmian Hall is called simply “the Hall” and is an enormous wooden long house where peasants and nobles, merchants and thieves, monks and whores all intermingle. For many it’s the closest institution to a “lower house” in all the kingdom. Here members of fraternal orders meet in raucous discussions on the affairs of state and market. For an institution with no actual political authority “the Hall” is a powerful voice in the realm. Smuggler’s Cove in the Laigin Quarter where a band of Guild Foresters have taken to shipping illegal and untaxed goods and services. This dock is technically outside the jurisdiction of the city constables by some nuanced technicality which makes it part of the Viscount Ripon’s land. The Viscount is a terrible rogue and has allowed the guild to operate for more than twenty years. The neighborhood is not dissimilar to other dock districts but the warehouses are rarely stocked with legitimate goods and constables nowhere to be seen. The Square lies along Peasants Road and stretches between the River on one side and the Bridge Road on the North and craftsmen’s shops on the East, the Square is an enormous lot devoted to the sales of everything in the kingdom the commerce and trading houses have the largest stretches of tents and stalls, and nearby coffee houses & boarding houses serve as the “Merchant’s District” The Square offers some strange and interesting devices but it’s the sense of urgency that is most prevalent here. Little Ulaid lies in the northernmost point of the Royal Quarter. A vault has been carved into the bank of the island and the whole district is devoted to housing, coinin, and selling of precious mettles. The people here are devoted and all have a serious northern ferocity which makes it a dangerous place for thieves but even more dangerous for soft aristocrats whose greed grates on the metallurgic passion of the northern Uladians.